The MT frequently receive queries that are already clearly answered in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file on the website. If some aspect of SOTA is puzzling you, please read through the FAQ file Summits on the Air and only ask the MT if the FAQ file doesn’t help. This way you might get your answer more rapidly!
The problem with that is “How do you find the FAQ?” It is not directly linked anywhere except right at the bottom of the “Joining In” page. Which is not an obvious place to look, especially for someone who is frustrated by trying to do something.
Can I suggest adding a direct “FAQ” menu link to the main menu bar on both (all) sota web sites.
73, Colin G8TMV
It’s at the top of every page on here.
I think that it would be desirable to have it on the Sotawatch menu bar when the next incarnation goes live, I can’t speak for other people but I have Sotawatch displayed at all times when I’m not using the PC for something else, so that I can see new Spots.
If you changed the title of this thread to " The FAQs file - LINK at the top of this page" more people would notice it.
73,
Rod
But not on the main site sota.org.uk or on sotawatch.org
73, Colin G8TMV
The problem Colin is nobody looks anymore. We get lots of mail to the MT via the contact page where people ask questions. The answers to those questions etc. is on the very website they have looked around and over to find the contact us link. People would rather ask a question than read the info that is already published.
On the main site the welcome page says read the Joining in section and there’s a link to it. The side bar menu on there has a link to the FAQ.
Perhaps we should make the FAQ page the starting point for all users so they have to start there. Doesn’t mean people will read any of them 
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If you get mail asking questions that are answered in the FAQ then it means the FAQ is too difficult to find!
If you make it much more visible (after all how much work is a couple of static menu links?) then maybe you will get less email.
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We get mail on the “contact us” form asking how people contact us. I kid you not. And these questions come from people with English as a first language.
Dear all
I can see in my daily business that people are overwhelmed/piled with rules, and the number of rules has increased significantly in the last ten years. So I experience that it has become difficult to comply always with all rules, even if people want to do so. It became more difficult to know all rules in place (even the changed ones) and to be able to find them on the first attempt.
According to my observations, the ability of understanding and following rules has decreased. So there are more open questions, and some people ask back … and some do what they judge best … or don’t even think about it. These people reading every bit of a rule are from a former generation, it’s an ongoing transition.
SOTA is not the easiest thing to understand, so the problem described above will not improve. The management team is probably happy to have members available that are even able to write coherent rules. Being a guest in this marvelous leisure activity I am comfortable with the present situation - as long as I’ll be able to read rules, hi.
So: don’t expect too much from your initiative, but keep in touch with your basis all the same, even if they ask simple things. Asking what could be improved is always a fine thing in our leisure environment.
Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ
I’ve found several people at work stating without embarrassement they are not reading emails with more than a few lines of text.
Things are often too compex as to explain them in a couple or three lines of text.
But in these sometimes extremely busy days people are not willing or not able to spend a few good minutes to make the effort of reading and understanding a long text.
It’s what we have, I’m afraid…
73,
Guru
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The implicit question may be “How do we contact you by email?”, in which case it’s not totally unreasonable. You may receive what they say as email at your end, but it’s not email to the sender. It’s a web form. Some people hate them. I do. It’s an unfamiliar environment; you never know whether it is going to work or not, and you don’t automatically get to keep a copy of what you sent in the same place as all your other correspondence. Total pain. All to avoid just publishing a simple email address.
Web contact forms are notorious for not liking what you sent - e.g. complaining that it’s too long, or trashing special characters because somebody feared a SQL-injection attack. Or messing up the formatting in other ways; I used another one today which flattened out all of my carefully chosen paragraph boundaries. Often they discard your message if something doesn’t work first time. Many have a stupidly small composition window (at least yours is re-sizable - many aren’t and you just get used to that being so). You can’t really blame people for sending a short message asking how to communicate properly.
Martyn
Or, in this case, nine email addresses!